Today I had a two hour conference call with our family coordinator. There are 53 families in the "waiting for referral" stage. 53 families whose dossier has been sent to Ethiopia. I have learned some interesting facts that I'll share for those of you who are interested in the nitty gritty! :)

The wait time for children is as follows:
Infant boy: 5-7 months
Infant girl: 7-9 months
Toddlers: 7-9 months (approximate)
2 siblings under 5: 9-12 months
Siblings over 5: 2-3 months (approximate)
Twins: miracle (no time frame)

The agency currently works with one orphanage, but by the end of March they will be working with two more. Lord willing! Our agency signs a contract with each orphanage and then they have to help support that orphanage in some way. The agency is trying to work with orphanages that only work with AWAA in the US and then with other countries like France, etc. AWAA does not want to work with an orphanage that works with other US agencies.

The court closes from August-October. This will possibly affect those who get referrals in June and esp. July. Likely they won't get a court date until after the courts open again. So those families will be in for a long wait to travel.

There were lots of other things spoken of, obviously if it was two hours long! But these are the most interesting facts I thought. How does this affect us? Our log in date (time that dossier was sent to Ethiopia) was at the start of December. So we won't hit the 5 month range until May. We are asking for two children under two so that means we likely won't hear anything until after the courts open in October. If we have been waiting a year then we can consider changing our request to one child. When we are near or at the top of the list we should know about what children are available and the agency will ask us if we are interested in a different request. So that does make me happy to know that they won't ignore us indefinitely while they wait to have twins or a young sibling group is available.

The thought of twins being referred to us has practically been all but eliminated. It would truly be a COMPLETE MIRACLE if this happens!!! In some ways I am sad by the call because I feel we are in for a LONG wait. Our request is so rare and short of a miracle it may not be what the Lord has for us. Will we have to consider something totally different, I don't know? It was good though to hear people's voices and get some questions answered! Pray the Lord will give us discernment when we need it!